Chapter 3: Deep Blue! Give Me Points!

“But the commotion when I claimed the Purple Thunder of the Heavens was a bit too extreme...”

Xu Jingming, having reined in the lightning, stared at the ruined living room and scratched his head.

The entire living room looked as if it had been hit by a missile, with debris scattered everywhere.

Some fragments still smoldered with residual flames.

The walls and floor were riddled with craters carved by arcs of electricity.

“Luckily, I realized something was wrong during my transformation and managed to restrain my power—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been just this living room that suffered.”

Xu Jingming felt a chill of dread.

Purple Thunder of the Heavens originated from Eastern mythology, one of the ten primordial thunder sources of ancient times, possessing the power to annihilate immortals and slay gods.

As merely an Awakened, he could not manifest the full might of Purple Thunder of the Heavens.

But if he unleashed his power freely, he could easily blast through the entire floor—and the whole building would collapse.

With Purple Thunder of the Heavens, even if the building fell, he himself would be unharmed.

But the other residents living in the building? They’d be doomed.

Fortunately, he had tightly restrained the lightning’s power, preventing such a catastrophe.

“I clearly underestimated Purple Thunder of the Heavens’ power. If I’d known it’d cause this much chaos, I should’ve just gone to the outskirts to claim my beginner’s gift.”

Still, despite saying that, Xu Jingming was quite satisfied.

After all, the stronger his ability, the better his future prospects.

“By the way, the beginner’s gift also gave me 200 Ability Points—what are those for?”

As Xu Jingming remembered the other reward from the beginner’s gift, a system prompt echoed in his mind:

“Ability Points can be obtained by slaying ferocious beasts. Consuming Ability Points allows you to level up and enhance skills. [20] You can view your Ability Point total and upgrade options in the system panel.”

In the system panel, you can see the ability points and upgrade options.

With this explanation, Xu Jingming understood.

Ability Points were essentially the same as experience points in an online game.

“The classic monster-slaying-and-leveling-up routine—simple, but effective.”

A faint smile crossed his lips as he opened his system panel.

【Name】: Xu Jingming

【Level】: Awakened

【Ability】: Purple Thunder of the Heavens (S)

【Physique】: 121 Qi (++)

【Spirit】: 140 He (++)

【Skills】: Spear Technique (Beginner+), Lightning Wind Break (Beginner+)

【Ability Points】: 200

The system panel displayed information concisely; the plus signs indicated which stats could be upgraded and which could not.

Physique and Spirit represented the two fundamental attributes of an Awakened, and his values were quite decent.

After all, most Awakened had only around 100 points in Physique and Spirit.

“But I’ve practiced spear technique for five or six years, and my proficiency is still just Beginner? Isn’t that a bit excessive?”

Xu Jingming grumbled inwardly.

Aside from abilities, humans also used weapons as offensive tools.

Unlike most who chose swords or knives, he chose the spear.

He’d trained with it since his teens, yet even now, his proficiency remained only at Beginner level.

Skill proficiency was divided into six tiers: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, Grandmaster, and Perfect.

Beginner meant you’d barely started.

The other skill, “Lightning Wind Break,” was a spear-based combat technique.

He’d purchased it for 300,000 Great Xia coins when he awakened his weak electricity ability at age sixteen.

He’d trained for less than two and a half years, so Beginner proficiency was normal.

“Looking at the panel, I can use these 200 Ability Points to boost either attributes or skills—so which should I choose?”

After his grumbling, Xu Jingming fell into thought.

Tomorrow was the annual Gaokao.

He had to spend every one of these 200 Ability Points wisely, maximizing his combat power.

“Physique and Spirit are the two fundamental attributes.

Improving them enhances both combat techniques and ability control.

If that’s the case, I’ll boost my base attributes first!”

After a moment’s deliberation, Xu Jingming split his 200 Ability Points evenly, allocating 100 to Physique and 100 to Spirit!

“Deep Blue, give me points!”

As he clicked the plus sign on the panel, Xu Jingming first felt his Qi surge violently!

His surging Qi surged through his body like a raging river!

His mind sharpened, becoming clearer.

Moreover, his control over Purple Thunder of the Heavens improved too!

“Abilities fundamentally stem from Physique and Spirit.

Increasing these two attributes directly enhances ability potency.”

Clenching his fist, feeling the power surging within him and the Purple Thunder of the Heavens ready to be summoned at will, Xu Jingming nodded in satisfaction.

He looked again at his system panel:

【Physique】: 141 Qi (++)

【Spirit】: 160 He (++)

“Both base attributes increased by 20 points—meaning 1 Ability Point equals 0.2 Qi or 0.2 He of Spirit.”

“The exchange rate is a bit low, but it’s fine—it’s a direct, no-side-effect boost.”

“Too bad the beginner’s gift only gave me 200 points—I could’ve leveled up even more.”

“Still, with my current strength, passing into an Ability University is more than enough.”

From the moment he obtained the S-rank ability Purple Thunder of the Heavens, his power ranked among the top in Jiangnan Province’s Gaokao candidates.

Now that his two base attributes had improved, he could truly be called one of Jiangnan Province’s elite candidates.

He said “one of,” not “the strongest,” because Jiangnan Province had over eighty million people, with over seven hundred thousand candidates taking the Wu Ke Gaokao.

Among those seven hundred thousand, the most common thing was freaks.

These freaks didn’t have S-rank abilities.

But with A-rank abilities, plus combat experience and technique enhancements, they were still formidable.

After all, some students’ families could hire renowned masters to teach rare, powerful combat techniques.

Some could even hire bodyguards to take them into the wilds to fight ferocious beasts and gain combat experience.

In that regard, Xu Jingming, an orphan, had no chance to compete.

But his S-rank ability was something no other candidate could match...

But the S-class ability he possessed was equally unmatched by any other examinee......

Suddenly, urgent knocking echoed at the door. Before Xu Jingming could react, the entire door was kicked inward with a crash.

A group of firefighters in orange uniforms, holding water guns, appeared in his line of sight.

When they saw no fire inside, and a living person standing there, they froze.

When they discovered there was no massive fire as expected, and that a living person was even standing there, they were instantly stunned.

Xu Jingming blinked, cautiously greeting them.

Xu Jingming blinked his eyes and cautiously greeted.